Some programmers do go to conferences and buy training courses to keep up appearances regardless of the impact on their actual performance. We mock them for it

Some programmers do go to conferences and buy training courses to keep up appearances regardless of the impact on their actual performance. We mock them for it just like we mock people who buy $1000+ headphones to impress other audiophiles. Responding to this fact with "people waste money on conferences, so you shouldn't program" is like saying "people waste money on headphones, so you shouldn't listen to music," though.